


Evasive

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Colonist (Mass Effect), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 01:16:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2090247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She doesn't talk about Mindoir much.  Maybe it's time she finally did.</p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: evasive</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evasive

"You don't talk about Mindoir much."  
  
It's quiet down in the armoury when Garrus makes the remark but the way it makes it her jump, he might as well have shouted it. She's sat on the floor by the console he's working at because it's pretty dark down here and sometimes even the lights of the tank can get on her nerves at times but she'd feel bad trying to pin up blankets to block it out. It's probably fair though, after she made a rare mention of it down on Eden Prime and Garrus had pointed out his home from the surface of Menae.  
  
"Yeah," she mumbles before she glances up, watching Garrus type away on the console until he stops.  
  
"Sorry, I can't imag-" he begins and she shakes her head and gets to her feet because it's not the kind of conversation you have sitting on the floor of the armoury.  
  
"No, I should...I should talk about it. It's just that for years it was always there in my file. People would look at it and have this little pause where they didn't know what to say, whenever there was some ceremony they'd have parents to bring and then there was me. I didn't have that." She swallows carefully, looking straight ahead because she's moved on, she's grieved, she's been to counselling and god help her she's seen things much worse than that night on Mindoir and it's not something she thinks about every day but this war has it on her mind much more. "I mean I got out okay, it was rough but I'm here. But there are people out there like...like..." She can't bring herself to say the young woman's name and reaches for Garrus' hand when it's offered.  
  
"Talitha," Garrus supplies and she nods.  
  
"I know not everyone was like that, that a lot of people...I mean the ones that weren't taken, you move on. The world keeps going so you end up doing it too because no matter how much you want it to stop, how unfair you think it is that you've gone through this thing, life does go on," she continues, taking a deep breath when she feels her heartbeat in the back of her throat. "I try to keep that in mind now. I mean it's barely started but we're going to win this, we're going to Garrus," sometimes she doesn't know if she's trying to convince herself but there's something bone-deep that always whispers that they're not going to let the Reapers defeat them even if it's early days. She clung to that all the way from Earth to Mars, all the way from Mars to the Citadel and it's kept them going so far now.  
  
"What was it like, before? I've told you my boring life story but the files only ever say so much about you."  
  
"We had a farm." There are tears in her eyes but she can feel herself smiling as she pictures it, not the fires or the blood and dust in her mouth, not the screaming but when she'd wake up to warm sun and green fields. "Both my parents were scientists, botanists. Went out to Mindoir to live the dream and to help make sure the colony was sustainable, that sort of thing, build a new life and do it better than we did on Earth, y'know?  Mom was in charge, I can't remember what her title was now but she always wore a green lab coat. Dad got her these sunflower head buttons for it, he stayed at home on our own farm."  
  
"You loved them." Garrus smiles at her, reaching over to brush away a tear. "I wish I could've met them."  
  
"Dad would've asked you all about the plants on Palaven, he was always getting in touch with other institutes and researchers. But his favourite thing were his bees. I don't know what they were, maybe he brought them from Earth, maybe they were native, probably some weird hybrid Mordin would've had a field day with but he loved his bee hives. We had loads of them, far as the eye could see because y'know, gotta have bees to pollinate." Her voice is somehow steady but she remembers how she hadn't cried when the soldiers had found her, not until they'd walked her past the remains of the hives and she'd broken down then, she'd screamed and sobbed until she'd thrown up, she remembers that now. "One hive used to make this weird honey, it was purple, more pink than blue. I told some of the kids at school when I had some for lunch that it was liquidised hanar, I remember thinking it was totally worth the detention."  
  
Garrus lets out a startled laugh and she joins in, both of them laughing until they're breathless even if it isn't that funny and she wipes away her own tears this time, leaning her head on his shoulder.  
  
"Thanks. It's...I should talk about it more. Stop trying to dodge the question."  
  
"I'm glad you shared that with me, I know you said it wasn't the same when they rebuilt it but...they rebuilt it. There are people living on Mindoir, there are farms, people. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding after this war." This time she takes his hands, squeezes lightly.  
  
"Hey, farmer's daughter, I'll teach you how to hold a hammer, I promise."


End file.
